COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Wichita State men's track and field team punched four more tickets to the NCAA Outdoor Championships Friday at the NCAA West Preliminaries at E.B. Cushing Station.
 
Sophomore Josh Parrish earned his second entry to the NCAA Championships, finishing third in his 110-meter hurdles quarterfinal with a time of 13.56 claim an auto-qualifying spot.
 
Shortly after, redshirt-junior Yared Kidane punched his ticket with a gutsy finish in the 800-meter quarterfinals, running 1:47.35 to finish 12^th overall claim the final qualifying spot.
 
In the next race, sophomore Jason Parrish auto-qualified in the 400-meter hurdles, running his third-straight sub-50 second race to finish third in his quarterfinal and get the big Q.
 
Capping the night, the Wichita State quartet of Joakim Genereux, Josh Parrish, Kidane, and Jason Parrish clocked another school record time in the 4x400-meter relay, running 3:06.38 to finish fourth in the second heat. With three heats of quarterfinals, the top three in each heat automatically advanced to the NCAA Championships, and the next three fastest times would fill out the field. The Shockers sat in the final qualifying spot prior to the third heat, needing their time to be faster than the fourth-place team in the final heat. Watching with bated breath, Wichita State saw their hopes of making it to Eugene, Ore. slip away when TCU finished fourth in 3:04.12, leaving the Shockers in 13^th place as the first team out.
 
But that wasn't the end of the road as there had been a red flag in the first heat, leaving the relay results under review. The Shockers stuck around at the track while multiple protests were filed and reviewed, and a disqualification of Cal Poly, the 12^th-place team, for taking two steps on the lane line pushed Wichita State up into the final qualifying spot, sending the relay the NCAA Championships. While Kidane and the Parrish twins had already locked in entries to the championship meet, Genereux, the senior, who thought his track and field career had come to an end, celebrated joining his teammates at Hayward Field in June.

Also competing on Friday, senior Ridge Estes wrapped up his discus career with a 38th-place performance, throwing 53.91m/176'10", and redshirt-freshman Kelvin Acheampong completed his first season in uniform, jumping 14.50m/47'7" to take 43rd in the triple jump.